www.list.co.uk/film
jig-iii
MUSICAL- ROMANCE LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR (LOVE SONGS) (15) 100min COO.
ln Les Chansons d’amour Christophe Honoré uses the great French filmmaker Jacques Demy’s 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as a template, splitting his musical romance into three sections named ‘The Depart', ‘Absence' and ‘The Return’. But Honoré is no purist, and, unlike Demy, he mixes up proceedings with spoken dialogue, veering away from Demy’s kitsch production values and delivering raw images of Paris in the traditions of the Nouvelle Vague.
Where Demy had Catherine Deneuve, Honoré’s muse is Louis Garrel. This is the third time the director and actor have worked together after Ma Mere and the excellent Dans Paris, but it seems as though Honoré has lost his reins somewhat. Garrel's flamboyance and quirky tics are out of place in this film and often detract from the central theme of lost love.
Ismael (Garrel) is dating Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), who we first see echoing Deneuve in Cherbourg, walking across the screen in a yellow overcoat. Keeping the links with Demy’s classic is Deneuve’s daughter Chiara Mastroianni who plays Julie’s sister. Mastroianni is the moral conscience of the story and could easily be the girl in the car at the petrol station at the end of Demy’s film, now all grown up. She is shocked to discover that Julie is enjoying threesomes with Ismael and co-worker Alice (Clotilde Hesme). This depiction of a homosexual relationship marks a clear jump forward from Demy, but it is a death, shot with still photographs, in the manner of American photographer Weegee, that really turns events on their head and leads the film down a far more poignant road.
Ultimately, however, despite a fine pedigree, this film never quite reaches the needed crescendo, and unlike Demy's classic it doesn’t leave you crying out for an encore. Still worth a look though. (Kaleem Aftab)
I Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh and selected release from Fri 74 Dec.
VI
attics or rum! (12A) 90min no
The prospect of a comedy about table tennis .snt a pc rtic.iia'ly exciting one; somewhere Over the COurse of Dodgeha/l Talladega Nights. Beam 0" G/Of} and Hot Bod. the Cicmedic pOSSibilities of idiot sportsmen ran out of puff SOme time ago
Bandy Daytona Dan Fogier. star of Good Luck Chuck. the impoverished man's Jack Blade is a one-time table tennis prodigy recruited to revenge the death of his father Pete iPobert Patrick; by infiltrating a crime lord's island tOurnament. This lanie take on the Enter the Dragon KicktDOXer genre initially sets Wllief’dlleCiOl Ben Garant on COurse for the same paltry returns of his laugh-free Reno 97 ljlvliami feature. but the welcome arrival of master-criminal ping-pong fanatic Feng (Christopher Walken) lifts Balls of Fury onto the Airplane.’ level of deadpan parody.
Dressed in the most elabOrate gown and ng since Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Walken sends himself up in phenomenal style. letting fly With endless Wise-guy mannerisms while muttering aSides under his breath ab0ut how he'd rather be at home watching Antiques Roadshow. Veteran TV character actor James Hong also gets good mileage from bad-taste Jokes as Daytona's blind mentor Master Wong, and Maggie Q prowdes the reQUisite glamour as Wong's sexy niece. Spons films have prowded a simple paradigm for US comedians to Craft elementary vehicles for their first fOrays into film and Balls of Fury represents no great improvement in a threadbare genre. but at least Walken puts in a proper shift as a Christmas panto Villain. (Eddie Harrisom I General release. from Wed 26 Dec.
CLASSIC/REISSUE IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (U) 130mm oeeee
Film
AN‘.‘A’ C\ CCUEL“ BEE MOVIE (U) 90min .0.
The bus: JL‘CuT Bee fi'c. e .1 Cute animated tacie 'g‘i are" that asc st‘iorxases popi.:a' C ce"\ Sei'iteid. 3.".0 deueiODed the protect with the w ters i'Ol“ his titular steam The sting in the tale is that while \aguel‘, palatahie to hem audiences, Bee Moi e is a little too meet for g'w.n~ups. yet too bitter to charm kids Seinfeld plays Barn B Benson. a worker bee who reiects the hive rotitine in favcur of an excurswi to Manhattan. where he dlSCO\.elS that. while bees do all the hard graft. mankind makes a wad of cash through selling their honey.
Providing a strange role model for children, Barn iaiinches a successful lawswt against 819 Honey. but upsets the fragile balance of our ecosystem in the process. T()l(2lllg him to saxe the world in order to wm the heart of florist Vanessa iBenee Zellwegerl The film's knowing strain of JeWish humour works well With this forbidden human insect love stow (She's not a WASP“ Barry tells his pals in the hive). but the alleQOry about how sooety revolves around honey is IEI/‘Ily developed. Among an endless font of insect puns. there are SCII'UQDlCCHIIflg cameos from Ray Liotta as a cruel honey farmer and from Sling as himself, and Seinfeld supplies enough deft one-liners to make Bee Movie a out above the likes of A Shark Tale or Over The Hedge while never approaching the Pixar quality benchmark, An oddly conceived vehicle for a reluctant star. Bee Mowe deserves a B-minus for effort.
(Eddie Harrisoril I Selected release, from Fri 74 Dec.
o. J. .5
You know Christmas has arrived when Frank Capra's perennial festive seaSOn fav0urite receives its annual reissue. The 1947 ClaSSIC is one of the most inspirational films of all time. as well as being a fine romance, a terrific comedy and genume tearierker. This year the film celebrates its diamond anniversary.
For anyone who's been liVing in a cave for the past 60 years Capra's film is a morality play about an Everyman named George Bailey (James Stewart) who loses his love of life. attempts to end it. and is shown by an angel how his smalltown home of Bedford Falls would be worse off Without him.
Now enshrined as one of the best films ever committed to celluIOid, what's less well known about IAWL is that its star Stewart initially turned down the role of Bailey. because he didn't feel up to making the film so soon after sewing in World War II. It was the great Lionel Barrymore (who plays the film's Scrooge-like Villain) who talked Stewart into taking the pan. which became the star's favourite.
The film. which initially lost money at the box office. drew critiCism for its political commentary on post-WWII American society and was branded ‘subversive' by the FBI. Dorothy Parker did unaccredited w0rk on the script. and although it was nominated for five Oscars. it won none, losmg out to the sombre postwar melodrama The Best Years of Ours Lives. Bah humbug! (Miles Fielder) I GFT, Glasgow and selected Cinemas, from Fri 74 Dec.
13 Dec 2007—4 Jan 2008 THE LIST 51